Ginny hit the ground as the portkey finished transporting the both of them. Both of them dropped the trophy to the ground as they fell back, the portkey dropping them roughly on the ground.
They both looked around in confusion.
“A graveyard? Spooky,” Eric said, “I guess the maze wasn’t the end? One last challenge?”
The graveyard was covered in a light mist and was gloomy. Gravestones and stone statues of angels surrounded them on all sides. There was a massive black cauldron just in front of them with bubbling dark liquid inside of it.
Ginny stood up silently and drew her wand.
Eric glanced at her, “Oh, you still upset about Fluer? Look at it from my perspective Ginny! She tried to control my mind, to force me to do her bidding! Don’t I deserve some compensation from her to make up for that?”
“You didn’t have to torture her,” Ginny said, “That was way too far and you know it.”
Eric looked surprised, “Torture? I don’t think so. It all made sense to me. How would you feel if she was trying to control your mind? It would have even worked if I wasn’t my amazing self. Even you, the perfect little saint that you are, would have done something to get payback I’m sure. It was an equal exchange between me and Fleur. Not torture.”
“I wouldn’t have tried to SEW HER LIPS TOGETHER in response!” Ginny shouted, “Just listen to yourself! Do you have any idea how insane you sound?”
Eric looked away, “I thought it was fine,” He grumbled, “Don’t know what everyone keeps getting so worked up about.”
“What if it was Fleur doing it to you?” Ginny demanded, “How would you feel then?”
“How would… I feel? If it happened to me?” Eric said, sounding like he’d never thought about it before.
“You know… huh. I guess I wouldn’t like it. Maybe you have a point, Ginny.”
Ginny lowered her wand a fraction.
“I should have cast a numbing spell on her first!” Eric said, “Her mind controlling me wouldn’t have been painful for me so it was unfair to give her pain back when I was piercing her lips with the needle. I’ll have to apologize to her later after she has some time to calm down.”
“Eric…”
They both paused as a woman with black hair emerged from the steps of a mausoleum. She was cradling something in a bundle of fabric one arm and had a wand in the other.
“It seems your little portkey change has worked well, Bellatrix... Kiiiillll the spare,” a voice hissed from the cloth bundle.
“Of course, Master,” the woman said and raised her wand. “Avada Kedavra!” The woman chanted as she channeled magic into her wand.
Ginny dived behind a nearby gravestone with wide eyes as a bolt of green light shot out of the woman’s wand and hit the ground where she had just been standing.
“Hey, quit that,” Eric said, “Ginny’s just being a scaredy cat. Both of us could smack you around without even trying. I can. Ginny certainly could if she was thinking straight.”
“Arrrrooogggganccceeee…” The bundle hissed as Ginny peeked around the gravestone to see what was happening. The magic in the creature in the bundle flowed oddly. In flows and spurts rather than the normal flow she would expect to see in most other creatures.
“Nooo channncccces,” The bundle continued, “Bellatrix, get the bloood.”
“Blood? What, gah!”
Ginny’s eyes widened as a needle shot out of Bellatrix’s wand and went into Eric’s leg with no warning. Before he could react, the needle retreated with a few drops of blood taken with it.
“Ow,” Eric said, “Now can you explain what’s going on? Is this still part of the tournament? I didn’t think the ministry would let people cast killing charms. But they did go for the kidnapping children bit pretty easily, so you never know sometimes…”
“Continue the ritual,” the bundle said, “Ignore them for now. They are weak and can not stop you.”
“If you say so, you little bundle of joy,” Eric said, seeming amused by the creature’s words, “I’m rather interested actually. You know about rituals? Do you know one to fix my eyesight? I have to wear glasses all the time to read and it's incredibly annoying.”
“Put me in,” the creature in Bellatrix's arms hissed.
Bellatrix ignored Eric and dumped the creature in her arms into the cauldron.
She levitated a long leg bone that was sitting on top of a nearby grave with a spell. Tom Peter Riddle was on the gravestone. He had died about fifty years ago as Ginny peered around the gravestone she was hiding behind to see the date of death.
“Bone of the father, unwillingly taken,” Bellatrix chanted before dropping it into the cauldron.
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Ginny hissed at Eric.
“No. Don’t you want to see a ritual yourself?” Eric said, “Maybe this is the reward for beating the tournament? Seeing a super secret ritual at work? I’ve never even heard of anyone else using rituals in at least a hundred years. They were made illegal, I think. This is a unique experience, something we might never get to see again.”
Ginny hesitated. Maybe that made sense, but she was getting a bad feeling about it. The things that the woman was saying didn’t seem very positive. And her name felt vaguely familiar. Ginny was sure that she had heard it somewhere before, but she just couldn’t place where…
“Plus, if you’re so against it why don’t you stop it yourself?” Eric continued.
“Blood of the enemy, unwillingly taken,” Bellatrix chanted while taking the needle and dissolving it, causing the blood inside to spill into the roiling black fluid below.
“Enemy? Who’d I… Wait, Tom Peter Riddle, bone of the father... Is that you, Tom? Wow, how Tom Riddle has fallen in just a few years. Life’s treated you rough. I thought we were reluctant allies at worst, I didn’t think I’d earned enemy status just yet.”
Bellatrix raised her arm and took a knife from her robes. Her chest puffed out and she raised her chin slightly as she rested the blade against her wrist.
“Flesh of the servant!” She shouted, “Given willingly!”
Before Ginny could react, Bellatrix cut off her own hand in a single movement of the blade, sending it tumbling into the roiling fluid below.
“Whoa, hardcore…” Eric muttered as Ginny tried to understand what was going on. This couldn’t be for the tournament, could it? Something must be wrong. She wanted to summon Fawkes… But if she did she would be disqualified if this was still part of the tournament somehow. An advanced illusion or something? If there was even a one percent chance that this was still part of the tournament… She glanced at Eric.
There was still a chance Eric hadn’t actually grabbed the trophy first. She didn’t want to give him the victory when she didn’t have to, just because she got a little frightened by whatever was happening here.
The cauldron began shaking violently as Bellatrix took a step back while cradling her bleeding stump of an arm. But she had a rapturous worshipful look as the cauldron rattled so hard that it looked like it would break free of its housing in the small stone platform below it. Ginny sensed massively complex magic swirling and pulsing within the cauldron around the small creature inside.
Ginny kept watching as the creature inside grew and grew until it was the size of a full man. It was now blazing with magic, its magic more than most of the wizards Ginny had ever met. The only person who was even close was Dumbledore. And even Dumbledore was probably fractionally weaker than this mysterious creature in his raw amount of magic.
The creature shifted in the cauldron and began to float up so its head broke the surface of the dark fluid. He was completely naked.
“Look away, Ginny!” Eric called out loudly, “He’s about to flash us! Protect your poor unspoiled virgin eyes from him!”
Blushing slightly, Ginny did so and ducked back behind the grave as the strange man’s waist raised itself out of the cauldron. She could tell with her magic sense that it was definitely a man, no need to check with her eyes too. Ginny noticed that Eric didn’t look away and just shot a satisfied smirk her way instead as he saw her reaction.
The strange man flashed with magic after his feet were hovering a foot above the cauldron. He was draped with black robes that covered his form.
“Ok, it’s safe now Ginny,” Eric said, “He’s put on some clothes. His junk was really small, be glad it won’t be the first one you see. Well, see as a girl, which is basically the same thing. If you had him as your standard then it would make you way more impressed by the next chump that gives you a chance and they had a more normal size. Completely lowering your standards completely by accident.”
“ERIC!” Ginny said in a half strangled scream, “Shut up! Stop looking at other guys’ junk!”
“Hey, a guy’s got to compare them somehow,” Eric said, not even phased by her reaction, “If I knew this is all I had to do to send you off balance then I would have started teasing you with it earlier.”
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“Enough with the jokes,” the strange man said in a hissing snakelike voice, “Your time will come soon, Harry Potter.”
“It’s Eric now, I told you that. Tom? Tom Riddle? Is that you?” Eric asked as he squinted and peered at the strange man closely, “You look like crap. What happened to your nose? Where’d it go?”
Ginny popped out from behind the gravestone, her cheeks still flushed in embarrassment as she peeked at the man standing there covered in a black cloak. Oh, he really did have no nose. Instead he had two little holes like for a snake and a vague bump upwards where his nose should be. Oof.
The man, Tom Riddle apparently? Paused.
“Hm. I’ll find out how you know that later,” The man said, “But I have something more important to do first.”
He turned to Bellatrix who was standing there looking at the man like he was the most important person in the world. She silently reached into her robes and held out a bone white bleached wand which the man accepted.
“Bellatrix, give me your arm,” the man said after inspecting his wand for a moment while ignoring Eric and Ginny who was peering at them from behind the gravestone.
“Of course my lord!” She said excitedly and held out her uninjured arm, “Let them know that their true master is back! All those who bore the dark mark of your loyal death eaters yet turned their backs as soon as it was inconvenient for them!”
“Indeed,” He said with the faintest hint of a smile as he reached out and grabbed her forearm. He took a single finger and pressed it firmly there and Ginny felt him channel his magic there. Instantly a dark tattoo with a skull with a snake slithering out of its mouth like a long tongue appeared. Ginny felt the dark tattoo pulse and released a pulse of magic that rapidly raced away from the graveyard.
“Sooooooo…” Eric said as the man’s finger left Bellatrix’s arm, “Is this still part of the tournament? Are you going to give us a riddle or something? I hate riddles. Heh, Tom Riddle's going to give us a riddle. You're perfect for the job, I guess.”
“You are a foolish boy,” the man hissed casually, “I am Lord Voldemort, your superior in every way. Every breath that you take past this moment is only at my whim. You won’t be able to joke for much longer once my attention turns to you, useless insect that you are.”
All around the graveyard, figures began apparating in with dark cloaks with long pointed hoods and silvery skull masks covering their faces.
Ginny tried to remember who this person was. Voldemort? They were important weren’t they? Related to Pettigrew somehow… The leader of the Death Eaters! The one that had murdered Harry’s parents as a baby and was rumored to be one of the most powerful wizards alive aside from Dumbledore at the time!
“Death Eaters!” Voldemort called out, “I have returned- return- return-”
Voldemort’s voice began to stutter and repeat as he stood there motionless. Ginny saw that Voldemort’s eyes had begun to glow golden. Fate! What would Fate do with access to one of the most powerful wizards in decades?
Ginny heaved desperately with her bond with Fawkes and pulled out the little puck from Balthazar. She started tapping the panic button on the top desperately over and over with her finger as Voldemort turned around. The black device started flashing red as she kept pressing the button.
“Avada Kedavra!” Eric called and pointed a finger gun at Voldemort’s body as the man's eyes began glowing an ever brighter golden glow. Voldemort went down in a heap and was still for a second as a green bolt shot out of the tip of Eric’s fingers and slammed into the man’s chest.
Eric raised his finger gun and blew on the tip as if to get rid of the smoke from the barrel of a pistol and then pretended to holster it at his hip.
“Hah! No long drawn battle this time whoever you are, puppet master,” Eric gloated, “I beat you to the punch.”
Voldemort floated off of the ground, his eyes blazing with golden light.
“Not quite,” Fate said, her voice booming with magic as Voldemort raised his wand towards Eric, “Goodbye, Beyonder.”
Just as Eric raised his hands and prepared to fight, a red portal sprouted into existence behind Ginny and Balthazar stepped through.
Voldemort’s head snapped around and his golden eyes widened as Balthazar released a wave of nearly solid magic that rippled through the air around him.
Fate reached out and released a similar pressure of her own that made the red portal tinge with golden streaks and begin to flicker and stutter like a badly tuned television.
“I see now,” Fate breathed, “This is not a single stray Beyonder, but an invasion. My champion must be awakened…”
The golden corruption overcame the red portal and it shut. Balthazar glanced at Ginny before putting one hand behind his back. He used his pointer finger to point behind him. Ginny followed his finger to see the triwizarding trophy sitting there, a portkey enchantment still on it. Ginny’s eyes widened and she nodded back at Balthazar.
Balthazar turned back to Voldemort, who was weaving some sort of spell as he stood there.
“Fate. Prepare for your puppet to die,” Balthazar said firmly.
He reached out and with a gesture sent his magic pulsing within the earth. He had his hands pointed towards Voldemort’s feet and in a single motion raised his hands to the sky. A massive pillar of earth raised upwards and launched Voldemort high into the air. Voldemort flew through the air, until his body fuzzed and he became shrouded in a dark cloud and started to turn and streak back downwards as it allowed him to fly, only two golden dots of light of his eyes shining through the dark cloud as it descended towards them.
Balthazar leapt into the air and the two batlike wings on his back began to flap, releasing massive bursts of wind with each stroke. His magic was infusing the wings so he shot into the sky and began releasing a series of spells at the descending dark cloud that dodged and weaved agilely to swerve around every spell that Balthazar sent blasting upwards like an acrobat.
Balthazar was rising to meet Fate as he flew up in the air with his wings. When Voldemort was close enough, Balthazar stretched out his arms wide and infused what seemed like the whole sky with his magic. He clapped his hands together and there was a massive boom as all the air in the sky seemed to surge upwards in a single massive burst of wind. Voldemort’s smoky form was blasted high into the sky out of sight under the force of the spell. Balthazar hovered there for a moment before with one final flap of his wings and a massive injection of his magic shot into the sky just as fast after Voldemort’s body even as the dark cloud began to reform around Voldemort’s flailing body.
The two of them were tiny dots high in the sky now, but Ginny could see the bright flashes of spells and titanic booms even from here as they began to fight each other full force with their magic.
Ginny was jolted out of her shock as Fate launched a massive bolt of lighting at the tiny dot that was Balthazar far above. The noise and sudden wave of thunder shaking the graveyard around her made Ginny realize that Balthazar was acting as a distraction so that she could escape. She had to get out of here now, before one of those titanic spells from their battle came down here and obliterated the spot where she was standing.
Ginny glanced up and saw that Balthazar was holding a ball of lighting in front of him and with a motion she could barely see tossed it back at Fate, who dropped down with Voldemort’s dark cloud spell to dodge.
Ginny turned and started running towards the triwizarding tournament trophy. It was only ten steps away and she dived forward and grabbed it as the graveyard descended into chaos behind her. Her hands wrapped around the cup and the portkey activated. It wrapped its magic around her and in a single flash she was away and dropping back onto grassy ground. It was much warmer.
The booming and crackle of spells from above to be replaced by the murmuring of the crowd.
“AND GINNY WEALEY IS THE WINNER OF THE TRIWIZARDING TOURNAMENT!” Ludo Bagman said from the stands, “WE HAVE OUR WINNER!”
The crowd began to cheer wildly as Ginny rolled over and sat up and inspected her surroundings in confusion. The portkey enchantment on the trophy unraveled and then dissolved into nothing even as she held it.
She was back at the entrance of the maze at Hogwarts. She had made it out in time. She let out a sigh of relief as she sat in the field, ignoring the crowd.
Balthazar would be fine, he could take on Fate with one arm tied behind his back. He was strong and confident, he’d just shrug it all off after and chuckle that she had even been worried about him.
Fawkes suddenly appeared in a burst of flame above and let out like a warlike battle cry as he swooped down towards her protectively. The crowd paused in their cheers.
“I’m fine now!” Ginny said as Fawkes calmed down as he took in his surroundings even as he landed in front of her. She leaned in next to his ear, “Balthazar saved me,” She whispered before drawing back.
Fawkes tilted his head and then chirped, “Yeah, I’m good. Go ahead,” she said, “I’ll explain later.”
Chirp.
Fawkes leapt into the air and with another burst of flame disappeared again.
“And even her Phoenix is congratulating her on her victory!” Ludo Bagman cried from the stands, rolling with the sudden event without even a pause, “Let’s show our own support! Let’s hear those cheers! Ginny Weasley everyone!”
The crowd cheered even louder, shaking the ground slightly beneath Ginny. Ginny suddenly tensed as she remembered. Oh no, she had left Eric behind…
— — —
“FUCK! It’s Balthazar!” Bellatrix Lestrange screamed, “Get out of here! The lord will deal with him! We’re nothing but ants beneath their feet if we stay!”
To reinforce her point the sky lit up as Lord Voldemort summoned what looked like a massive golden dragon out of nothing to charge his opponent.
The death eaters who had been gaping at the battle between gods going on in the sky above them suddenly came to their senses. As one the cowards all fled, apparating away again in an instant. Bellatrix took her wand awkwardly from her robes with her remaining hand and quickly rushed into the mausoleum she had been waiting in for the last few hours. Inside was an expanded trunk with all her and her lord’s belongings.
She went to grab it with her stump hand, but growled as she realized that it was missing. She quickly settled with lifting the case with a levitation spell. The ground shook around her and she stumbled into a wall, dust raining from the ceiling and a series of cracks running up the stone walls of the underground structure. She waved her wand again and rushed back up the stairs, the closed expanded luggage case floating behind her.
She reached the top and set the luggage case next to the massive black cauldron still filled with three quarters of the potion that her lord had used to resurrect himself. Her hair rippled as a blast of air came down from the sky above and nearly knocked her from her feet. But she ignored it and kept her head down even as a bead of sweat formed on her brow. She quickly set the luggage case down in a hurry and opened it with a few fumbled spells to open the latch holding it closed.
Bellatrix focused despite her trembling wand arm and cast a shrinking spell. The massive cauldron and the precious fluid inside shrank to a quarter of the size. Bellatrix got more nervous. It wasn’t enough, she had to go smaller… She cast the spell again and the cauldron shrunk in size again.
Now just small enough that it would fit through the opening in the case. She quickly levitated it and put it through the opening and down inside in its expanded confines where the cauldron immediately ballooned back up to its proper size in the expanded space of the luggage trunk as her shrinking spells ran out of power.
Her Lord had instructed her of the value of this potion and the equipment, so she should do her best to preserve it now that he and Balthazar were engaged in a direct battle that she had no chance in helping him with.
She glanced over to see Eric Potter staring into the sky in dazed shock, not even the roar of thunder and massive blasts of spellfire above knocking him out of it.
Bellatrix shook her head and closed the luggage case and locked it with her spell. She floated it up to herself and awkwardly tucked it under her arm with the bleeding stump. Part of the ritual was preventing any magical healing of the wound, so she’d have to stop the bleeding with… muggle means.
She shifted her grip on the case and then with a final flick of her wand apparated away to safety. She’d treat her wounds and wait where the lord knew where to find her. Voldemort was the greatest wizard of his generation, it would be a hard fought battle but of course he’d come out on top.
Bellatrix remembered the memory of when she had seen Balthazar during her escape from Azkaban. The man that she now knew was Balthazar combating what must have been dozens or even hundreds of Dementors all at once with his spells…
She gulped. Lord Voldemort would be fine.
He was Lord Voldemort. Now that he was returned to her, how could he lose?